Uni Baggage

Bag was not delivered to my accommodation, I had to collect it from the depot and as a student with no car this was an extreme hassle.

Very unhappy with the service to be honest. Firstly, there was no text to tell my parents that the unibaggage was coming on Friday 11 January. They came and there was a 5 minute window with no one in the house and so they recorded the delivery as Collection attempted - parcel not available. They had to bring it to the depot so that it would be in Manchester for Tuesday 15th. It gets worse. For some reason, the bag was recorded as Delivery attempted on Monday 14th. I received no calls or texts from anyone and I asked at reception had they refused the bag and no one knew of anything. I am still unsure whether the reception refused to sign for the bag as I was not there, but I was available all day so someone from Parcelforce/Unibaggage should have made me aware they were coming a day early and I could have collected it from reception, that is, if this happened. I went to reception and gave them all the information so they would be ready for "redeliVery" on Tuesday 15th. So, it was held in the depot for redelivery apparently from 17.57 on Monday 14th (scheduled; Held in depot for redelivery). I waited all day Tuesday for the bag, contacting unibaggage telling them I was annoyed about the Monday and that they needed to confirm that it would come on the Tuesday as I would not be available on Wednesday 16th and would be going away for a week on Thursday 17th. They gave the driver my number, yet the bag was not even loaded in his van, it was still in the depot. So, at about 6pm I had lost my temper after a day of contacting unibaggage and Parcelforce about the mix up. I went to the depot and was told the driver had not returned and they did not know the status. I woke up on Wednesday and saw the tracking status was 00:18 Manchester Piccadilly Depot Loaded to vehicle for delivery. I had a University exam on Wednesday morning so hoped that the bag would be delivered to reception. After the exam, I received an email from unibaggage saying they were investigating the problem. The man who did all this was very nice and helped a lot, but Parcelforce are a mess. They emailed me after I had enquired on the Tuesday saying that they were "sorry but there are no details to indicate why this occurred but I can assure you that whilst we do all we can to ensure parcels are delivered on time, there are occasionally circumstances beyond our control that prevent this from happening.
Your parcel is due to be delivered on 16/01/13 between 7am and 5.30pm." Subsequent to this, I got a call from unibaggage saying that the bag was in the Parcelforce depot!!!!! They said that the bag, since it had been refused by halls, would not be dispatched again unless I said so, until 6pm on 16/01/ So, basically Parcelforce blatently lied. The bag had been in the depot since Monday. So, when I went on Tuesday night to get the bag, it was there and I was told it was not. I went and got the bag on Wednesday afternoon. Thankfully my flatmate has a car. He took me twice. As a student, how much money would I have had to spend on taxis to go and collect the bag? LOTS. It's Manchester. So, I have been frustrated from Tuesday morning until Wednesday afternoon, during exam time. I will definitely not be using this service in the near future unless it sorts out its organisation and communication. The fact that unibaggage and Parcelfoce told me two different things just shows how great their communication is... Not happy. Thankfully I have the bag now and have access to all the things I need for going away tomorrow, Thursday. Bad times. If they were not so cheap I would definitely not use them again. What's the point in ordering delivery to Halls if you have to go to a depot in the end up? NONE.

16 January 2013

Reply from Uni Baggage

Hi Aoife, I am very sorry for any problems you faced. I can see on the tracking that the driver called to collect the item and it was not available for collection. It is possible to leave your item in a safe place for collection with a note for the driver. When the item was attempted delivery it was refused by your Halls. Once an item has been refused it is held at the depot and then returned to sender. You should have been able to collect your item from the depot on your first attempt, I am sorry about this. We can also arrange for another delivery but it was stated that this was not possible for you as you would not be available. Please be aware that this issue arose from the refused acceptance on delivery and if the delivery was simply missed it would automatically go out for delivery the next day. I am sorry that Parcelforce were telling you different things and they did confuse the matter, so I am also sorry about this. I hope this one bad experience will not put you off using Uni Baggage in the future.